California's governor has said that deadly wildfires in the winter will be 'the new normal', as fire crews rushed to contain the fires, with dry desert winds expected to intensify over the weekend. Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday toured Ventura County neighborhoods ravaged by a weeklong wildfire that killed at least one person and destroyed hundreds of homes and other buildings. At a news conference, the Democrat said drought and climate change mean California faces a 'new reality' where lives and property are continually threatened by fire, at a cost of billions of dollars. He added that gusty winds and...

Devastating wildfires fueled by climate change are “the new normal”, California’s governor has said. Jerry Brown said vast fires, such as the ones that have ravaged southern California in recent days, “could happen every year or every few years”. “We’re facing a new reality in this state,” he said. Mr Brown made the comments after surveying the damage in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. Thousands of firefighters have been battling the fires since Monday. Mr. Brown, a Democrat who has attacked the Trump administration’s stance on climate change, said: “We’re facing a new reality in this state, where fires...

President Donald Trump lashed out at Democrats on Twitter on Friday, the morning after a Mexican man who illegally entered the US six times was acquitted of murder in the death of a young woman walking on a San Francisco pier with her father. "The Kate Steinle killer came back and back over the weakly protected Obama border, always committing crimes and being violent, and yet this info was not used in court," Trump tweeted. A jury cleared Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 45, of murder and manslaughter charges on Thursday in connection to the fatal shooting of Kathryn Steinle, with...

VATICAN CITY Gov. Jerry Brown challenged the world’s religious leaders to further engage as he minimized the negative effects of President Donald Trump on meeting the climate-change challenge. “The Trump factor is very small, very small indeed,” in comparison to the commitments taking place around the world, Brown said to a burst of applause Saturday at an event organized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. “That’s nothing to cheer about, because if it was only Trump that was a problem, we’d have it solved. But that’s not our only problem. “The problem … is us. It’s our whole way...

Gov. Jerry Brown challenged the world’s religious leaders to further engage as he minimized the negative effects of President Donald Trump on meeting the climate-change challenge. “The Trump factor is very small, very small indeed,” in comparison to the commitments taking place around the world, Brown said to a burst of applause Saturday at an event organized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. “That’s nothing to cheer about, because if it was only Trump that was a problem, we’d have it solved. But that’s not our only problem.

On a recent weeknight, writing instructor Ellen Tara James-Penny sits with a student in a parking lot near San José State University for more than an hour, explaining the perils of “hasty generalizations” and other pitfalls in college-level writing. Then, James-Penny and her husband get into their aging Volvo sedan and drive a few blocks to a local church, where she sleeps in their car with one dog and he sleeps in a tent a few feet away with the other.Despite the four college courses she teaches, and the master’s degree she earned a few years ago, James-Penny is homeless....

On October 12, 2017, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed into law a state-wide ban on employer inquiries into an individual’s salary history. The new law (AB 168) will apply to all employers, including state and local governments, and will take effect on January 1, 2018. The new law continues the expansion of equal pay protection in California. California’s Equal Pay law has been on the books since 1949, requiring equal pay, regardless of gender, for equal work. It remained largely unchanged until 2016, when it was amended to require equal pay for “substantially similar” work.

Of all the candidates for utopia, Stockton, California would be on the bottom of my list. But a 27-year-old mayor, with the backing of a foundation, is trying for utopia, as seen by supporters of the Mommy State: Universal Basic Income. Futurism.com writes: Stockton, California, is about to become the first city to test government-supported universal basic income in the U.S. The program is the idea of the city's 27-year-old mayor and will be primarily funded by the basic income advocacy group Economic Security Project.

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) — California Gov. Jerry Brown warns that catastrophic wildfires will keep ripping through the state as the climate warms. **SNIP** He said a warming climate has contributed to catastrophic wildfires. “That’s the way it is with a warming climate, dry weather and reducing moisture.” said Brown. “These kind of catastrophes have happened and they’ll continue to happen, and we have to be prepared to do everything we can to mitigate.” The governor has positioned himself as a leader in the fight against climate change.

SACRAMENTO — California will beef up protections for undocumented immigrants beginning in January under a controversial new law Gov. Jerry Brown signed Thursday to create a statewide sanctuary policy. Brown signed the bill and 10 other immigration-related bills on the same day as a critical deadline for immigrants aided by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, who must file by Thursday for a final two-year extension before the program is phased out.

California on Friday expanded its market for buying and trading permits to emit greenhouse gases to include the Canadian province of Ontario. The market is the centerpiece of California’s cap-and-trade program, which aims to reduce carbon pollution over time by capping emissions and requiring companies to obtain permits to pollute. Quebec is already part of the market. California is aiming to reduce emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. The two Canadian provinces have similar or stricter goals. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the agreement Friday in Quebec at a meeting with officials of both provinces, capping off...

Gov. Jerry Brown’s popularity has slipped in recent months, but a majority of California voters still approves of his job performance, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. The survey found 53% of voters gave the Democratic governor a favorable job rating, down from 64% in February, shortly after the start of his final term. Thirty-four percent rated him negatively, up from 27% in February. The survey found Californians in a relatively sour mood: Only 38% said the state is moving in the right direction; 49% said things are pretty seriously off track.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a voter-approved California law that would have forced gun owners to get rid of high-capacity ammunition magazines by this Saturday. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who is based in San Diego, issued a preliminary injuction Thursday that found the law was likely unconstitutional because it prevented people from using firearms that employed “whatever common magazine size he or she judges best suits the situation.” The law would have barred people from possessing magazines containing more than 10 bullets. “The State of California’s desire to criminalize simple possession of a firearm magazine able to hold...

California legislators on Thursday tightened rules requiring Volkswagen to spend a portion of clean car infrastructure funds in disadvantaged communities, passing a bill as part of a budget package agreed with Governor Jerry Brown. The state's regulator, the Air Resources Board, last month told VW to "make every attempt" to invest 35 percent of the first 30-month investment cycle in disadvantaged communities disproportionately affected by air pollution.

Jerry, (GET HELP) California use to be a STATE, NOT A COUNTRY! With President Donald Trump pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, China and California signed an agreement Tuesday to work together on reducing emissions, as the state's governor warned that "disaster still looms" without urgent action. Gov. Jerry Brown told The Associated Press at an international clean energy conference in Beijing that Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement will ultimately prove only a temporary setback. For now, he said, China, European countries and individual U.S. states will fill the gap left...

California’s ban on displaying the Confederate flag doesn’t apply to individuals even if they are on government property, state officials said this week in settling a free speech lawsuit. Fresno artist Timothy Desmond sued after his painting depicting the flag was barred from the 2015 Big Fresno Fair. His painting shows Confederate soldiers fighting in the 1864 siege of Atlanta, led by a soldier carrying the battle flag. California’s 2014 law says the state cannot display or sell the Battle Flag of the Confederacy or any similar image unless it appears in a way that serves an educational or historical...

California Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to the state’s drought emergency on Friday after powerful storms quenched the state following four extraordinarily dry years that drained reservoirs and wells, devastated forests and farmland and forced millions of people to slash their water use. The turnaround has been stark. After years of brown fields and cracked earth, monster storms blanketed California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains this winter with deep snow that flows into the network of rivers and streams that supply much of the state’s water. Front lawns revived to bright green in neighborhoods throughout the state and rivers that had...

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has signed a climate change agreement with California Gov. Jerry Brown at the start of a five-day visit to the U.S. that comes as Scotland considers its independence from the United Kingdom. […] Sturgeon tells The Associated Press Monday she in the U.S. to strengthen Scotland’s trade and business relationships with “one of its most important markets.” Sturgeon also toured Tesla Motors’ Silicon Valley facility and discussed connecting Scottish women entrepreneurs with American investors. …

California’s governor and legislative leaders on Wednesday proposed raising $52 billion to fix the state’s roads through a big gasoline tax increase, higher car registration fees and a charge on emission-free vehicles. The 10-year plan would boost gasoline excise taxes for the first time in more than two decades, raising them 12 cents per gallon — a 43 percent increase. The tax would rise automatically with inflation. For the first time, owners of zero emission vehicles would pay a $100 annual fee because they use public roads but don’t pay gasoline taxes that fund highway maintenance. The plan also includes...

The governors of California and New York said Tuesday that they will push ahead with their aggressive climate change policies despite President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to boost the coal industry. Democratic Govs. Jerry Brown of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York said in a joint statement that they will help fill the void left by Trump’s decision to unravel former President Barack Obama’s plan to curb global warming. “With or without Washington, we will work with our partners throughout the world to aggressively fight climate change and protect our future,” the governors wrote. […] The governors...